Paddington survivor removes mask

The Paddington crash was caused by a train running a red light

Paddington rail crash survivor Pam Warren has removed the special mask she has been wearing since the disaster to protect her badly-burned face.

Surgeons who rebuilt her features following the commuter train crash agreed the time had come to allow her to remove it.

When I look back at pictures of myself before the crash, I am looking at somebody else's face

Pam Warren

Mrs Warren now hopes that other people who have suffered similar severe facial burns can be inspired by her own remarkable transformation.

In an interview with ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald, to be shown on Thursday night, she said: "I've been wearing the mask for so long now that I'm quite frightened about taking it off and then going out in public.

"I've suddenly come to realise that I've relied on the mask too much to hold back the mental trauma."

Safety campaigner

Mrs Warren, who has become a fierce campaigner for rail safety, said she now had to focus more on her "mental" injuries suffered as a result of the accident.

Pam Warren wore the mask for 23 hours a day

She was one of 269 people badly injured when a First Great Western express heading for London's Paddington station collided with a Thames Train service on 5 October 1999.

Thirty-one people died in the disaster.

Mrs Warren said she was nervous going into her local pub in Whitchurch, Berkshire, without the mask, even though the people in the pub were friends.

"But now I have done it, I really feel as though I have crossed a huge hurdle and hopefully next time it won't be so bad when I go out without it," she said.

Mrs Warren has spent up to 23 hours a day wearing the mask and said it had "almost become part of my clothes" and that saying goodbye to it was "almost like saying goodbye to a friend".

She admits how pleased she is with the results on her face, but also how hard it is to reconcile the way she used to look before the accident to how she looks now.

She said: "Psychologically that is going to take me a lot longer to fully accept.

"When I look back at pictures of myself before the crash, I am looking at somebody else's face."

Inspiration to others

Mrs Warren also told the Tonight programme she hoped her experiences would give other people with burns injuries courage and show them they should never give up.

"I am told that people are very put off by the amount of perseverance and determination that is involved in recovering from burns injury."

"It is very difficult to get them to take that on board, unless they see the results like mine," she said.

Mrs Warren also reveals that while she was at a psychiatric clinic, which she admitted herself to in January, she attempted to take her mask off prematurely.